Railroad cars such as gondolas that carry various size metal coils are covered with one or two metal lids. The top of some cars reach five and half feet from the railroad track. The top of the load lifting attachment (handle) on the top of the lids may be fourteen to fifteen feet above ground. In the normal operation of loading rails cars with large metal coils which can weigh fifteen to twenty-two tons, a crane is used, usually with a four legged bridle, to remove the lids from the rail cars. These lids are then placed far enough from the crane so coils can be delivered within reach of the crane to load the rail car. The crane operator can not do this unassisted. To attach the bridle, a man must climb onto the lid, which is inherently dangerous since these lids do not provide catwalks. This rigging is time consuming and labor intensive as well.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide apparatus that will safely and economically permit removal of the lids without rigging a crane for this purpose. Furthermore, rail yards in which this type of work is carried out have many fork lift trucks which are adapted to transport, lift and lower loads, ordinarily on skids or pallets, in the course of loading and unloading such heavy materiel as metal coils.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an accessory to such a fork lift truck that will permit the operator to engage, lift, transport and lower to temporary storage a rail car lid without the intervention of anyone other than the fork lift operator or use of any other piece of material handling apparatus.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an accessory that will not require any modification of the fork lift truck such as removal or replacement of the forks in order to engage in rail car lid lifting.